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Aunt: Monorail Victim Was "The Perfect Son"

Posted: 4:15 pm EDT July 6, 2009Updated: 4:59 pm EDT July 6, 2009

Eyewitness News learned more about a Walt Disney World monorail driver who was killed when another monorail crashed into the one he was driving early Sunday morning. The family of 21-year-old Austin Wuennenberg said he loved his job at Disney.


INTERVIEWS: Victim's Aunt | Ex-Monorail Pilot
SLIDESHOW: Images Show Crash Scene, Victim

Wuennenberg was a senior at Stetson University in DeLand. He had a girlfriend and a family who loved him. Eyewitness News reporter Elizabeth Artz spoke with Wuennenberg's family who say they are devastated.

Austin Wuennenberg was an only child. His father died of cancer when he was two years old. Wuennenberg's family said he was all his mom had left and they describe him as a smart kid who was doing what he loved.

Austin Wuennenberg would turn off the TV as soon as he got home from Disney every night as a signal to his mom that he was home safe.

"So we knew something had happened," said his aunt Penny Shanahan (watch full interview). "That morning the TV was still on, so she knew he hadn't come home and he didn't do that. He wasn't that kind of son."

However, a smile came across Penny Shanahan's face when she talked about what kind of son Austin was to her sister and each story she told had something to do with how smart the 21-year-old was.

"Austin was truly a genius," she described.

She said he was a child who could do fourth grade math in first grade. Austin won a lottery to attend Celebration High School and immediately joined the Robotics Club.

"Everyone had such great high hopes and expectations. They knew he would meet them and exceed them," Shanahan said.

Austin was a 21-year-old senior working on a degree in computer science and making plans to go to grad school. Austin went to Stetson University, the same college that his dad coached basketball at about 20 years earlier before dying of cancer.

"Maybe [he went to Stetson] to make a connection with his dad. He was just two when his father died," she said.

It was a connection his dad tried to make before his death. He wrote a letter to his son, which was posted in Austin's yearbook. His dad told him never to let anyone down and it seems Austin took those words to heart.

"I'll say Austin was the perfect son. All mothers out there would want a son like Austin," Shanahan said.

There has been an outpouring for Austin Wuennenberg from Disney co-workers, his girlfriend and friends on the Internet. Cell phone video of Austin Wuennenberg and his girlfriend was posted on Facebook within 24 hours of his death.

"He truly loved his job he loved working there. He loved his friends," Shanahan said.

There are four Facebook fan pages dedicated to the Stetson University senior with more than 1,000 members in all. There are hundreds of postings from people around the world. Many people knew Austin and others who didn't were touched by the tragedy.

Shanahan told Artz that Austin's fellow cast members pulled the young man out of his shell.

"He really hit his stride started going out with friends," she said.

Some of the most touching postings are from his girlfriend as she tried to make sense of what happened. "Why God, did you rip him away?" she wrote.

"He was a great kid, exceptional and extraordinary, exemplifies Austin to me," Shanahan said.

Disney was Austin's summer job for three years. He worked at several places around the park and helped out after hours.

"He loved the late shift, driving tram workers to cars," she said.

However, it was the monorail he truly loved. In those first hours after his death, it's how his girlfriend reasoned with her feelings, writing, "At least you died doing what you loved to do."

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